Zeus is a god, and he has a reputation, a reputation based on a simple truth: he’s a cad. An unrepentant, philandering cad, and it’s been driving his wife Hera nuts for years. One night Hera reaches her limit, and in a passive-aggressive act of revenge, she places a spell on Zeus, a spell that causes him to fall in lust with every inanimate object in sight. It was a night Zeus doesn’t remember, but he’s a god, after all, and so his seed took root, and eighteen years later, his unnatural hybrid bastards are wandering the world: misbegotten creatures. Quirky oddballs. Nature-defying fusions of man and inanimate object.

Looking forward to Criminal. Does anyone know if this volume will have any of the articles which appeared in the issues? Also a tip of the hat to Mr Ellis for mentioning Bad Company always worth a place on the shelf.

Hmmm... Trying out quite a few new books this week. Futuristic Tales is getting one more chance from me; I thought the first issue was pretty good, but #2 was sort of incomprehensible. If this one isn't any good I'm dropping it. XXXombies was a lot of fun last month... zombies on a porn set, how can you go wrong? Ghost Rider isn't any good, but I read the book as a kid and I can't seem to drop it. I think they're changing the creative team in an issue or two, so maybe it'll get better...

Jason Aaron is taking over writing duties of GHOST RIDER with issue...21...(pulled out of my arse, but I think it is right). Not sure if there will be an artist change, but my guess would be yes. If you don't know Jason Aaron (and maybe not, since you didn't pick up his awesome Native American crime saga comic today), he writes the Vertigo-publish comic SCALPED. I highly recommend checking it out. Issue #12 came out today (as Warren grievously did not mention, but luckily someone else did in this thread) and it is a self-contained story, or at least the start of the new arc. The first trade is already out (1-5), with the second arc (6-11) due out in trade-form...January (also pulled out of my arse). Aaron also wrote the graphic novel THE OTHER SIDE, which I have yet to pick up, but fully intend on doing so.

The second volume of Criminal is a beautiful book. I know the creators and publishers really really want people buying the pamphlets, and the "backmatter" essays and whatnot are supposed to be the carrot, but is it really working? Numbers keep dropping and it's being released with a "relaunched" volume 2 http://www.marvel.com/catalog/?id=8194 Apparently the "new format" is really just a slightly longer story and more of the filler/"backmatter". Should we worry for the book's health? The move kind of smells of desperation and historically this kind of "relaunch" doesn't really create more than a temporary sales bump. Maybe the book should go for the series of "mini-series" approach adopted by BPRD from Dark Horse.

What's really depressing is if the same creative team were doing a grim and gritty street level Spiderman book or something like that, sales would almost certainly be twice or three time Criminal's sales.

Chronicles of Wormwood was a pleasure to buy. Ennis unleashed in a way that you don't really see anywhere else. A quibble that it seems a little pricy, but then Avatar books generally are - though when you look at it, $8 for 48 pages is actually a slightly better deal than 2 22-page Chronicles of Wormwood pamphlets and it's worth it just for the Donna Partie 2-page short.

The Hate Annual is a wonderful example of what pamphlet-format comics should aspire to. Self contained, with a main story and additional COMICS stories by the same creator. What a great book!

I bought every single issue of Criminal in superior pamphlet form because I need instant gratification. I usually only buy stuff I missed or older books in TPB. For example to get me through untill my friday comic fix I picked up the Hellblazer TPB ,Rake at the gates of Hell by Garth and Steve. Because of this site I went to my pusher and ordered Chronicles of Wormwood wraparounds 1,2 and 3 and all the others I can get ,GravelBlackgas and told him to keep a sharp eye out for the Doctor Sleepless TPB.

Last week I got the new Matt Wagner Grendel. Devil by the Deed blew my mind back in the day so I have high hopes.

Picked up Northlanders and just finished the Bernard Cornwell Last Kingdom series of print books so have been on a bit of a Viking kick. Having an actual norse hawk to play with while reading these is very soothing.

Ultimates 3 issue 1, pull out wrap around cover makes a decent argument for pamphlets. Undoubtedly would not exist if not for Warrens work on the Authority.Take a bow.

Instead of starting a new thread, and since this question concerns one of the "comics out this week," did anyone find Streets of Glory #3? I went to my LCS and it wasn't on the shelf. Asked the owner about it and he said that he thought it was delayed, but regardless, he didn't get any copies (he had been getting healthy stacks of the previous two issues). So, did anyone's LCS get copies of SoG #3 yesterday?